Ornamental grid panel for fluorescent lighting fixtures



Feb. 5, 1963 E. F. GUTH, JR 3,076,390

ORNAMENTAL GRID PANEL FOR FLUORESCENT LIGHTING FIXTURES Filed Feb. 10, 1961 v" 1* a la 1 v\ du l Q Q IF I a...

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CIDUUIJDDUDU United States Patent Ofifice 31,076,890 Patented Feb. 5, 1963 3,076,890 ORNAMENTAL GRID PANEL FOR FLUGRESLENT LIGHTING FiXTURES Edwin F. Glliii, Jan, Ladue, Mo., assignor to Edwin F. Guth Company, St. Louis, Mo, a corporation of Missouri Filed Feb. 10, 1961, Ser. No. 88,429 1 Claim. (Cl. 240-40) This invention relates to ornamental grids for fluorescent lighting fixtures and to a device for creating ornamental color etfects when combined with any grid of the louver type for a fluorescent lighting fixture. It is contemplated that the invention may be applied to different forms of grids with the same beneficial decorative result. For the purpose of convenience only, one exemplary application will be described.

In the selected example, the invention is applied to relieve the bland appearance of one well-known grid type of louvered panel, such as is commonly used to prevent glare when the lighting fixture is viewed from below and at an angle. This grid type of louvered panel may be described as two series of spaced slats at right angles. The slats, when so arranged, leave small square openings, or cubic voids, about /8 of an inch square. The material used to form these grids is generally a suitable plastic and at least translucent in some marked degree. The panels may be mounted in separate fixtures, or be grouped edge to edge to form a ceiling structure. When viewed from beneath at an angle, the panels have a two dimensional appearance, length and width, and appear as a translucent lens with faint grid markings.

It is an object of this invention to create an ornamental appearance on a grid type lighting panel which produces the illusion of a three dimensional effect.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a device which can be applied to the panel in various arrangements and patterns to produce a variety of ornamental eifects as hereinafter described.

According to this invention, a small, more or less transparent colored, lens is provided with spaced legs extending angularly from the lens, which are of the same material. The lens itself is dimensioned to cover an opening in the grid on one face of the lighting panel and the spaced legs are dimensioned to lit in and project through the opening of the grid to the opposite face of the grid of the lighting panel. The legs are also spaced to wedgingly engage in the grid opening and are somewhat resilient to secure the lens in position in any selected grid opening. Each lens may be provided with two or more oppositely located legs. Assuming that the lens has two oppositely located legs, it can be inserted in the grid with the legs aligned either lengthwise or crosswise of the panel. There will be a distinct difference in appearance created in either case and a distinct difference in appearance depending upon the point and position from which the panel is viewed. For example, suppose the legs are aligned lengthwise and the point of view is from one end and from a position near one end of the panel. The lens portion of the device would emit a colored light, and, in addition, the leg nearest the viewer would produce a pastel shade of light of the same basic color as the lens to the portion of the louver visible in the next nearer grid opening to the viewer. Several lenses arranged the same way in spaced grid openings in a row will then produce a definite three dimensional eflfect when viewed from one direction, but when viewed at positions removed at right angles thereto would appear only as two dimensional colored spots. Thus, various lens arrangements are possible to produce two or three dimensional effects which, when combined, form an ornamentally attractive panel. Of course, the possible effects produced is limited only by the possible combinations in placement and arrangement of these simple lens devices. The lens devices may be produced in a variety of colors, such as red, green, orange, blue, or even gold, and yellow, and difierent colored combinations and different patterns may be created by the purchaser to suit his particular taste ornamentally.

Further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following, which is a full, clear, concise and exact description enabling anyone skilled in the art to make and use the invention when taken with the illustration in the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a lens device as it would appear when viewed from one side;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one of the lens devices as it would appear when viewed from the opposite side;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary view in perspective of a portion of a grid or louver type of fluorescent lighting panel with lens devices placed therein in two different positions to illustrate the contrasting effect produced by the different positions; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a grid, or lighting panel, for a fluorescent light fixture shown on an extremely small scale to illustrate a panel with an arrangement of lenses creating an ornamental effect.

Oneexample of many possible forms which this invention can embody is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. In this exemplary form, the lens portion of the device is illustrated as 1 and is preferably a flat plate with beveled under edges, such as illustrated at 2 and 3. It will be understood that all of the edges can be so beveled. The bottom surface of the lens 1 is parallel with the top surface, and it amounts to a square disk of sheet material about of an inch in thickness. integrally formed with the lens 1 and extending in the same direction from one surface thereof are a pair of spaced legs 5 and 6. The legs S and 6 are formed of a translucent, or transparent, plastic, the same as the lens 1 and are of the same color. Each leg is approximately of an inch wide and about 7 of an inch long from the surface of the lens 1 to the upper beaded edges 8 and 9. The lens 1 itself is about A of an inch square.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a grid type of panel is shown to which the lens according to this invention may be applied. This grid has a plurality of slats extending crosswise, such as 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14. It also has a plurality of slats 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 extending lengthwise so as to form a plurality of grid-shaped openings or cubic voids. These cubic voids are about of an inch square and will, therefore, receive the legs 5 and 6 of the lens 1, and, of course, the legs 5 and 6 are spaced so as to wedgingly engage with opposite slats of the grid. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the lens devices 1a are arranged so that the legs 5 and 6 thereof are aligned lengthwise of the panel, or parallel with the crosswise slats 11 and 12 and 13 and 14. The lenses 1b are arranged in the panel at displaced position from the lenses 1a. In other words, the legs 5 and 6 are aligned crosswise of the panel or parallel to the lengthwise extending slats 23 and 24.

This illustration in FIG. 3 shows the contrasting difference in effect from turning the lens from the position In to the position 1b, that is, when viewed from a position below and from a point under one end of the lighting panel. From this position, the legs 5 cause the portion 5a of the slats 11 and 13 to appear in the same color as the lenses 1a, although this emitted colored light may not be as bright as that emitted from the lenses 1a. Thus, where the lenses 1:: are arranged in alternate grid openings, the effect produced is one of three dimensions which causes the colored lens to appear as if they projected from the surface of the panel. Contrast this effect with that produced by the row of lenses 1b and it will be obvious that when arranged in the manner of the lenses 1b and viewed. from the same point and position, a two dimensional effect is produced. Stated another way, the row of lenses 1a would appear as a raised colored band on the surface of the panel. The row of lenses 1b, however, wouid appear only as spaced dots when viewed from the same position and location and point. Of course, at a further spaced distance away, both rows 1a and It would appear to the viewer simply as colored bands extending lengthwise of the panel.

FIG. 4 shows another example of a simple ornamental design for a panel for a lighting fixture. Lenses are mounted within the grids to form colored bands of angular design located in the manner of corner outlines, such as 40, 50, 60 and 70. It is possible to produce several distinct effects from the lens members 1 even when mounted in the same arrangement, for example, as in PKG. 4. The ornamental effect to the observer can be readily varied depending upon which way the lenses are oriented.

From what has already been stated, it is believed that the novel function and result obtained depends upon arrangement and orientation of the lenses within the grid structure of the lighting panel.

would match the particular decor of the room in which the lighting fixtures were installed, it is possible to produce various ornamental effects. Of course, it is also possible that some of these effects would be utilitarian and used for indicating purposes as well as ornamentation.

Changes in and modifications of the construction described may be made without departing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing its advantages.

By changing these to- .gether with exercising a choice of colored lenses which Having thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

An ornamental lighting panel including in combination a louver type of open grid, for a fluorescent lighting fixture, of light transmitting material and a plurality of lens devices for creating ornamental color effects when combined with said grid in various arrangements, each of said lens devices comprising a colored light transmitting lens element covering an opening formed by intersecting walls of said grid on the exposed face of said panel and having a flat side surface overlapping the exposed surface of louver portions surrounding said opening in said grid, spaced resilient legs of colored lens material extending inwardly from said fiat surface and biased apart against opposite side surfaces of spaced .walls of the louvers of said grid forming the opening in said grid and projecting into the opening of said grid toward the opposite face of said grid, and means on said legs for removably securing said lens in an opening in said grid by the resilient pressure in said legs.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 259,346 Vedder June 13, 1882 2,167,660 Lauve Aug. 1, 1939 2,398,624 Decker Apr. 16, 1946 2,445,552 Baxter July 20, 1948 2,448,606 Linton Sept. 7, 1948 2,511,764 Baxter June 13, 1950 2,786,196 Haynes et al Mar. 19, 1957 2,913,576 Gilleard Nov. 17, 1959 2,937,265 Blitzer May 17, 1960 2,959,668 Andrews Nov. 8, 1960 

